At about 2:30am Saturday morning, a drunken Johnson & Wales student charged through the Occupy Providence campsite in Burnside Park, damaging two tents and attempting to steal food. The protesters detained the student until police officers arrived at the scene, but no charges were filed. The student was invited to a meeting on Sunday afternoon to discuss his actions and learn more about the Occupy movement but he did not show up. And although he agreed to pay for the damage he inflicted on the tents, no money has been forthcoming.

State lawmakers were scheduled to meet at the State House on Monday to discuss Rhode Island’s policies on coverage of medical treatments for autism. Though the General Assembly enacted a law mandating insurance providers to cover the cost of procedures associated with the diagnosis and treatment of autism, Representative Peter Palumbo thinks this coverage should be expanded to include more therapists. Treatment for the disorder can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

In other local news, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will be providing significantly expanded service to T.F. Green Airport starting November 14, which should make going home for Thanksgiving a bit easier for those who have to fly. And, in sports, the New England Patriots, who hadn’t lost a regular season home game since November 2008, fell to the New York Giants in Foxborough on Sunday afternoon. (Just in case anyone forgot, the Giants famously ended another Pats streak just a few years back.)

Occupy Providence activists will join in on “National Bank Transfer Day” by rallying against big banks.  Following a Saturday morning protest at the occupiers’ camp in Burnside Park, participants will march from the camp to the Providence Bank of America headquarters.  The protest is part of a national movement advocating Bank of America customers to close their accounts in a show of opposition to what supporters call unjust business practices. [Read more →]

The mayors of Providence, Pawtucket and Cranston testified before the Joint House and Senate Finance Committees yesterday to explain that the current pension-reform legislation could lead the cities into bankruptcy. The mayors specifically requested that the legislation allow the cities to cut cost-of-living adjustments to pensions which currently raise pensions at a level significantly higher than inflation. According to House spokeseman Larry Berman, the General Assembly is most likely weeks away from taking action on the bill.

Despite the nor’easter that swept through Providence on Saturday night and eviction notices from Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare, some Occupiers remain in Burnside Park. Yesterday the group teamed up with the “We are All Arizona” coalition for an anti-deportation march to the State House. Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 met protesters on the steps of the capitol building and encouraged their advocacy for immigration reform.  [Read more →]

In 2009 Providence officials used a series of ordinance violations – including trespassing and remaining in the park past curfew – to remove “Camp Runamuck,” a tent city in a city park. Now they are considering using a similar civil injunction to persuade Occupy Providence to vacate Burnside City Park. Aware that the city is contemplating their removal, 200 protesters marched on City Hall Monday to request permission to occupy the park indefinitely on the basis of their first-amendment right to free speech. The constitutional issues at stake could potentially make the injunction against the Occupiers more complicated, said Peter DeSimone, counsel for the defendants in the Camp Runamuck case.

St. Francis Chapel on Westiminister Street is slated to close its doors after 55 years due to financial struggles and depleted numbers of Franciscan friars available to staff the church. The number of Franciscan friars in the Holy Name province of the East Coast has been declining steadily – 30 years ago there were about 1,000 friars and today there are only 342, 120 of whom are over the age of 75 and likely to retire soon.

Occupy protesters will march on City Hall this afternoon to signal their right to camp in Burnside Park after issuing a statement to Mayor Taveras and public safety commissioner Steven Pare.  Members of the movement have expressed gratitude for the city’s cooperation, which has resulted in zero arrests of protestors thus far.  Pare said he might seek a court order to evict the protesters from the park, in which case some of protestors will set up elsewhere in the city, but currently has no imminent plans to do so.

The freeze on cost-of-living adjustments for Rhode Island state employee retirees outlined in the Chafee-Raimondo pension reform bill is unprecedented according to president of Rhode Island American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations president George Nee.  ”This is the first time in our state, and one of the first times in the country,” he said of benefit reductions being implemented among people who are retired.

Rhode Island Public Transport Authority (RIPTA) will receive a $1.7 million grant from the federal government.  The money will be used to develop a management system to oversee the conditions of RIPTA’s fleet and facilities.  RIPTA will also receive an additional $189,000 through the EPA’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act to develop sustainability.

The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce board of directors voted in favor of the pension plan unveiled earlier this week by Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 and state treasurer Gina Raimondo.  Chafee said the vote “expresses the Rhode Island business community’s commitment to truly comprehensive reform.”

First lady of Rhode Island Stephanie Chafee will perform a civil union ceremony for her friends Lynn McKinney and Ron Margolin November 5.  Chafee, who was one of the first nurses in Rhode Island to work with AIDS patients, was authorized by lawmakers to perform the service.  Lawmakers routinely give authorization to people who are not licensed to wed, but this is the first time they have approved a request for a civil union ceremony.

Former Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman will be sworn in as New Haven’s new police chief Nov. 16, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano announced last night. Esserman served as chief in Providence from 2003 until an underage drinking controversy surrounding a party held for his daughter led him to resign June 30, 2011. During this time, murders dropped by 50 percent and overall crime declined by 30 percent, DeStefano noted. He added that as assistant chief in New Haven from 1991 to 1993, Esserman helped construct the effective community-policing model that is in place today, and that he hopes Esserman will repair relations with the community. [Read more →]

Late on Saturday afternoon, Rhode Island joined the international Occupy movement, a protest against the corruption and greed of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population and their marginalization of the remaining 99 percent. The movement, which began last month on Wall Street, has had hundreds of supporters here in Providence, with protesters gathering in Burnside Park for the past three days. By Saturday night, about 25 tents were set up in the public park downtown. And just this morning, members of the Occupy Providence group marched to the Bank of America building, where they plan to close their accounts and “take their money back.”

The state will be getting a new batch of much-needed primary care doctors, dentists and mental health providers this year, thanks to an expanded federal program which repays up to $60,000 in student loans in return for service in under-served areas of the country. In 2011 alone, twenty-seven health care workers in Rhode Island received awards with a combined total of $1.7 million from the National Health Service Corps. Last year, an additional 15 awards were made. Recipients work in community health centers, prison-affiliated clinics and other high-need locations.

In other local news, the state’s Special Commission on Reapportionment is holding a public hearing this Monday night to receive feedback on their proposed changes to Rhode Island’s political districts. And north of the State House, a laundromat was robbed by a man wearing a Halloween mask on Saturday night. There’s probably a joke in there, but for now, let’s just say it’s too soon.

A “Circle of Hope” composed of over 2,000 protesters opposed to state cuts that could adversely affect people with developmental disabilities surrounded the State House last night. In efforts to close a $300,000,000 budget deficit, state lawmakers have cut reimbursements for transportation-related costs and to service providers, including significant entry-level wage decreases for direct-service providers and nurses.

A Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union has called for the state to revise its formula for calculating the value of motor vehicles. A recent state law has increased the car tax as well as subjecting vehicles to the tax that were formerly exempt, and was met with opposition in cities across the state. The Rhode Island Vehicle Valuation Commission currently sets “presumptive values” for most cars, taxing the vehicles under the assumption that they are like new.

The state’s Department of Transportation is broke according to Robert Rocchio, its managing engineer for traffic design.  The funding shortages have allowed some of the state’s most dangerous intersections to go without repair for several years.  The department has also fallen behind on responsibilities such as bridge repair, which prompted Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 to petition the federal government for permission to collect tolls on Route 95.  Rocchio said the department has succeeded in making some small improvements to reduce crashes in some intersections, but said major construction on problematic intersections faces significant economic and time difficulties.

63 percent of state voters support a “complete overhaul” of the state’s current failing pension system, according to a poll administered by Engage Rhode Island, a coalition of businesses, trade associations and social service agencies.  The questions in the poll, completed by 450 “likely” voters, have yet to be released by the group.

A jury found South Kingston resident Kimberly Fry guilty of second-degree murder yesterday, after being accused of killing her 8-year-old daughter Camden in the summer of 2009.  Fry’s estranged husband, Timothy, testified that his wife had admitted to sitting on Camden and putting her hands on her mouth in an effort to calm her down after a tantrum.  Her defense argued her daughter’s death was an accident and emphasized Fry’s struggles with depression and suicidal tendencies.  Fry faces 10 years to life in prison with possibility of parole after 20 years.